\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWestmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli publicly addressed accusations made by an online civilian vigilante group Friday afternoon.\u201cIt is very dangerous what they\u2019re doing,\u201d she said. \u201cI am so concerned about public safety in Westmoreland County. If you\u2019re worried about clicks and likes, then you\u2019re not worried about children. We\u2019re worried about children.\u201dBrian Knepp is the founder of 814 Pred Hunters. His page on social media has gained a following by collecting evidence and meeting up with registered sex offenders under Megan\u2019s Law.The page has publicized multiple meet-ups where registered offenders are meeting Knepp, thinking they\u2019re meeting children.\u201cI have adult females decoys out there who portray themselves to be children,\u201d Knepp said. \u201cThere are a lot of counties now in Pennsylvania that take us seriously. We have over 70 individuals who are sitting in state prison.\u201dEarlier this week, Knepp claimed he met up with an offender in Westmoreland County.\u201cThe first time, he didn\u2019t get sexual,\u201d Knepp said. \u201cThe second time, he did, but never scheduled a meeting. The third time, he got highly sexual.\u201dKnepp told Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 that he spoke about his findings with a county detective and a state police corporal. He claims those conversations didn\u2019t get far.\u201c(The corporal) had just gotten off the phone with the DA, and she advised us not to collect that evidence from you and do any kind of charges,\u201d Knepp said. \u201cOther times, PSP straight up told me, ‘The DA said we\u2019re not taking the cases,’ and they didn\u2019t even come (to our meet-ups). We\u2019re doing all of the work for them. Everything is done. All they have to do is write up the criminal complaint.\u201dHe claims that his operation has tried to work on at least seven different cases in Westmoreland County since the page began.\u201cI tried really hard, as I\u2019ve done every single time, to get the police and DA way prior to the catch,\u201d Knepp said. \u201cNot one time have they accepted. One time, an individual admitted he was here in the United States illegally. He admitted to having Child porn on his phone and viewing it multiple times. PSP showed up, and they told me on camera that the DA does not allow them to charge these individuals on our evidence.\u201dZiccarelli said it\u2019s not as simple as Knepp is making it out to be.\u201cThey are not sworn police officers in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is a problem for us. They won\u2019t follow our instructions. They won\u2019t turn over their evidence over to us so that we can conduct proper investigations under the law.\u201dThe district attorney also responded to the claims about 814\u2019s previous actions in the county.\u201cAt no time did I ever say to any law enforcement agency to not accept any information that they have or any evidence,\u201d Ziccarelli said. \u201cWe called ahead to the state police on their behalf and asked them to reach out to 814 Pred Hunters directly. They then told them please do not engage with this individual. Bring us all of your evidence so that we may conduct a proper investigation. They said they wouldn\u2019t do it, and they didn\u2019t. Then, they went on their own and did it anyway. I informed all of my municipal police departments and PSP to please take their evidence and conduct their own investigations if warranted.\u201dThe DA said she\u2019s open to working with groups like 814 if it\u2019s done the right way.\u201cThey call us, just like any civilian would call us, with a tip. Whatever information they have, they turn it over to local police, state police, or this office,\u201d Ziccarelli said. \u201cIf they really cared about children and protecting them, they would work with law enforcement and follow their instructions so that we can prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tGREENSBURG, Pa. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli publicly addressed accusations made by an online civilian vigilante group Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very dangerous what they\u2019re doing,\u201d she said. \u201cI am so concerned about public safety in Westmoreland County. If you\u2019re worried about clicks and likes, then you\u2019re not worried about children. We\u2019re worried about children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brian Knepp is the founder of 814 Pred Hunters. His page on social media has gained a following by collecting evidence and meeting up with registered sex offenders under Megan\u2019s Law.<\/p>\n
The page has publicized multiple meet-ups where registered offenders are meeting Knepp, thinking they\u2019re meeting children.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have adult females decoys out there who portray themselves to be children,\u201d Knepp said. \u201cThere are a lot of counties now in Pennsylvania that take us seriously. We have over 70 individuals who are sitting in state prison.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Knepp claimed he met up with an offender in Westmoreland County.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time, he didn\u2019t get sexual,\u201d Knepp said. \u201cThe second time, he did, but never scheduled a meeting. The third time, he got highly sexual.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knepp told Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 that he spoke about his findings with a county detective and a state police corporal. He claims those conversations didn\u2019t get far.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The corporal) had just gotten off the phone with the DA, and she advised us not to collect that evidence from you and do any kind of charges,\u201d Knepp said. \u201cOther times, PSP straight up told me, ‘The DA said we\u2019re not taking the cases,’ and they didn\u2019t even come (to our meet-ups). We\u2019re doing all of the work for them. Everything is done. All they have to do is write up the criminal complaint.\u201d<\/p>\n
He claims that his operation has tried to work on at least seven different cases in Westmoreland County since the page began.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried really hard, as I\u2019ve done every single time, to get the police and DA way prior to the catch,\u201d Knepp said. \u201cNot one time have they accepted. One time, an individual admitted he was here in the United States illegally. He admitted to having Child porn on his phone and viewing it multiple times. PSP showed up, and they told me on camera that the DA does not allow them to charge these individuals on our evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ziccarelli said it\u2019s not as simple as Knepp is making it out to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are not sworn police officers in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is a problem for us. They won\u2019t follow our instructions. They won\u2019t turn over their evidence over to us so that we can conduct proper investigations under the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district attorney also responded to the claims about 814\u2019s previous actions in the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt no time did I ever say to any law enforcement agency to not accept any information that they have or any evidence,\u201d Ziccarelli said. \u201cWe called ahead to the state police on their behalf and asked them to reach out to 814 Pred Hunters directly. They then told them please do not engage with this individual. Bring us all of your evidence so that we may conduct a proper investigation. They said they wouldn\u2019t do it, and they didn\u2019t. Then, they went on their own and did it anyway. I informed all of my municipal police departments and PSP to please take their evidence and conduct their own investigations if warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n
The DA said she\u2019s open to working with groups like 814 if it\u2019s done the right way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey call us, just like any civilian would call us, with a tip. Whatever information they have, they turn it over to local police, state police, or this office,\u201d Ziccarelli said. \u201cIf they really cared about children and protecting them, they would work with law enforcement and follow their instructions so that we can prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli publicly addressed accusations made by an online civilian vigilante group Friday afternoon.\u201cIt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99318,24428,5855,79772,235,11533,3231,5848,9315,297,742,16020,28,99320,30,29,6429,38354,99319,5910,99321],"class_list":["post-229257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-814-pred-hunters","tag-brian-knepp","tag-child","tag-child-predators","tag-county","tag-da","tag-evidence","tag-first-time","tag-individual","tag-information","tag-law","tag-page","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-da","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-psp","tag-sex-offenders","tag-state-police-corporal","tag-westmoreland-county","tag-ziccarelli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}